Standard letter/email to send your MP in the UK
Candle Light Vigil in XXXX (local details) and outside the Houses of Parliament - 17 January 2006 (5-7pm)
Home Address
Dear XX (MPs first name)
A series of Worldwide Candle Light Vigils have been organised for 17 January 2006 to show our opposition to the death penalty and call for the release of all Sikh political prisoners held in jails in India.
Candles will be lit in prominent places in cities throughout the world, including in India itself. Sikhs in more than 100 cities are expected to take part in the vigils and will be joined by prominent non-Sikhs, such as politicians, human rights and trade union activists.
In the UK the candle light vigils will be taking place simultaneously in a number of towns and cities and are being organised by the Sikh Federation (UK), Khalsa Human Rights, Sikh Secretariat, Young Sikhs (UK), Sikh student groups, Gurdwaras and the Sadh Sangat. The vigils are being supported by Amnesty International and other members of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
The vigil in London will be taking place on Tuesday 17 January outside the Houses of Parliament (opposite St. Stephen's entrance) in Westminster between 5-7pm. MPs, Lords and members of the public will join Sikhs to light candles celebrating life, freedom and opposition to the death penalty. We would be delighted if you could join us in this campaign by lighting a candle outside the Houses of Parliament. Alternatively, you may be in a position to attend the local vigil in XXX outside XXXX between X-Xpm.
The worldwide vigils are taking place on 17 January to coincide with the 11th anniversary of one of the most controversial and highest profile death penalty cases in recent Indian history. Eleven years earlier, on 17 January 1995, Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar, a Sikh political activist, was illegally deported from Germany. Davinderpal Singh was handed over to the Indian authorities on the basis that he had nothing to fear on his return to India.
For 11 years Davinderpal Singh has been forced to live with the mistake by the German authorities. He was arrested and put in prison as soon as he landed in Delhi, tortured to obtain a false confession, charged and sentenced to death by hanging for a crime he did not commit.
When Germany deported Davinderpal Singh to a death-penalty prone country, it violated the European Convention on Human Rights. After his deportation, the court of appeal in Frankfurt allowed his appeal and said that he should not have been deported as he would face torture, harassment and death in India and were he to re-enter Germany he would be given asylum.
The verdict of the court of appeal in Germany came too late for Davinderpal Singh. However, it has left Germany and the EU with a moral obligation to ensure the threat of the death penalty by India is removed and Davinderpal Singh and other political prisoners that are unnecessarily being held, either without trial or under false charges and without evidence, are released immediately.
We look forward to seeing you on 17 January.
Yours sincerely,
XX [Your name]
PS. Sikhs in other countries may wish to send similar emails/letters.
